After exposing a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material to light, by color-developing it, an oxidized aromatic primary amine color developing agent and a dye-forming coupler react together to produce a dye, and a color image is then formed, in the exposed areas.
Generally, in this photographic method, a color reproducing method in a subtractive color system is used to form yellow, magenta and cyan color images.
As a photographic coupler used for forming the above-mentioned yellow color image, an acyl acetoanilide type coupler is used. As the couplers for forming magenta color images, a pyrazolone type coupler, a pyrazolobenzimidazole type coupler, a pyrazolotriazole type coupler and an indazolone type coupler are known. As the couplers for forming cyan color images, a phenol type coupler and a naphthol type coupler are used generally.
It is requested that such dye images obtained like this should neither be faded nor discolored, even after being exposed to light for a long time or being preserved under a high temperature and high humidity condition.
However, the phenol type coupler and naphthol type coupler that have been studied as the couplers for forming cyan dyes are still not satisfactory in spectral absorption characteristics, heat resistance, humidity resistance and light fastness of the cyan dye images to be formed. For the improvements of these points, various proposals have been done, such as a device for substituent groups. But, compounds satisfying all of them have not been obtained yet.
Therefore, with regard to the above-mentioned points, after the present inventors continued to study to discover photographic couplers for forming cyan dye images which are not changed in hue by heat, humidity and light, they accomplished the present invention.